Dave951M

I have a couple of aluminum torque tubes for sale. These fit 944, all years, 924S, 87 & 88, 951, all years. Will not fit 968. PM me for details.

Magown

Your PM box is full, PM me, How much? How much lighter?


Thanks,

Dave951M

My PM box has only one short message in it. What gives???

Anyway, it's 25# lighter and a direct bolt in.

josephsc

Dave, I see that this has been an ongoing project -- are there plans for full production mode in the future? I'm in the "interested, but not now" camp.

Dave951M

I'm in production now. It's no longer an experimental project.

Matt H

Dave- check your sent box and tracking, likely both are full. What is the price on these units? I want one but just spent 2K on go fast goodies, so it will be about 6 months before I am really interested.
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Dave951M

OK, the box is now completely empty.

ERAU-944

dave - cool product, although i probably wont be getting one...

make sure you clean out your sent messages and all that too, you only get 70 pms, and those count too (i found out the hard way)

-Michael-

qoncept944

This whole aluminum torque tube deal confuses me. It seems there are a lot of more reasonable corners you could cut to save weight. What gives?

iloveporsches

Supposedly it maintains the same structual integrity, while losing weight and making it easier to rebuild. Probably just something else overengineered from the factory.

Correct me if I'm wrong Dave, but it still uses a stock driveshaft. You just lose a ton of weight switching from the heavy steel tube to a lightweight aluminum one.

Dave951M

yup.

qoncept944- ever look really deep into where to cut weight in these cars? You're pretty much limited to removing insulation, carpet, window motors, power locks, cf body work, lexan hatch, racing seats, a/c delete. That's about the extent of the "easy" losses. You can lose 25# in the center of the car, maintain structural integrity, get a smoother running tube. The smooth running tube with solid mount bearings means less losses in the driveline, less vibration rattling your clutch and input shafts around, making for a longer clutch life. Some tubes I've seen that were thought to be good by the owners, were found to be bad while in the middle of a clutch job. Even then, the owner decided to go on with the clutch anyway. If you want a rebuilt from the dealer, be prepared to ante up $1850, exchange. I'm under half that for a new manufacture tube that's lighter.

1990_S2

Interesting. Do you have a website were I can see the tube? From the postings it sounds like you've enabled a way to service the clutch without removing the entire drive train?

I guess if you've got to replace the tube due to a failure this could make sense, but, I'm skeptical of the weight reduction benefits. The torque tube is low in the car, almost as low as you can get; likely inches below the CG. Why spend money there?

944JM

1990_s2, any reduction in weight is fat your engine doesn't have to haul around else why reduce the weight at all except for handling. Being at or near the center of gravity means there is really little to no effect in the handling except at extreme edges most of us mere mortals will likely not see. The real benifit is not wasting HP to move the extra weight as well as the wear and tear on the drivetrain. 25 lbs may sound little but when you take into account the amount of HP it takes to launch that weight and overcome it's resting inertia then it can be benificial to lose the weight. Any weight! Take motorcycles into mind. They weigh nothing compared to a car and most have only 1/2 to 1/3 the hp. My Yamaha 750 was a pig of a bike and had less than 1/2 the hp of our stock cars but the power to weight was tipped in the other direction (higher power to weight ratio) and would easily out accelerate the stock cars. A quick example of power to weight. Take a softball and a shotput. First throw the softball, then throw the shotput the same way. They are about the same in size and your arm didn't just suddenly gain any more strength yet I'll bet the softball went further and faster than the shotput. Also as an analogy, it didn't hurt your arm to throw the softball far and fast but I'll bet it'll about rip the muscles loose from your bones to make the shotput match the softball in performance and the same happens to your car. As for the handling, you might say that less weight means to that the tires don't have to grip quite as hard in the turn (again in this instance, the savings may be miniscule but they do add up. As they say in congress 'a million here, a million there, and pretty soon we're talking about real money!). When you calculate g-forces in the turns, that weight suddenly multiplys. A 150 lb pilot in a fighter jet that is pulling 5 gee's weighs for a time 750 lbs. If our cars could pull 5 gee's (I know it's unreal but for arguments sake) then your extra 25 lbs of steel in a stock tube added up to 125 lbs. A stock tube weighs 65 lbs and the alum tube weighs 45 lbs. Using the same 5 gee's then the stock tube in the turn weighs 325 lbs and the alum. tube weighs 225 lbs (not to mention the power loss needed to accelerate through and out of the turn and yes you are having to overcome not all but some of that weight multiplication with hp. Again in the real world it's not that drastic of a difference but every little bit helps. Sorry for the length here.

Dan Gallagher

is the price on these still $1100? did you ever develop the lighter one for track guys?

1990_S2

Everything is a trade-off. It's obvious to even the most casual observer that making a car accelerate quicker can be done in any number of ways and removing weight is one of those ways.

Guarantee, you'll go faster sooner, accelerate your LEARNING, by spending the time and money on your head not your hardware. For advanced drivers, champions so to speak, please ignore this commentary altogether.